Change and conflict in India

It is customary to describe India as a comparatively unchanging region of the world. Indeed, some have even attempted to evolve a distinctive 'model' for the sub-continent. These articles selected from the pages of Seminar, the monthly symposium, present a combination of stirrings which suggest that profound social muta tions are taking place. Admittedly, India has its own time-scale, and many centuries are telescoped into the present, but these years of enlarged freedom and more earnest development have set in motion forces which cannot be blunted. ZEM

The materials included in this volume were prepared during the first seventeen years of Seminar's existence (1959-1975). It was a crucial phase in continental development and naturally influenced the writing of the period. In this selection, there is an underlying unity of theme. Against a sweep of history and growing numbers, we pass over the rural and urban scene. Then, age and sex. Reli gionalism, communalism, caste and untouchability take over, giving way to secularism, modernisation and planning. The back drop is an interplay of the forces of tradition and modernity in Indian society. And there is a conclusion on the social sciences, and then prospects.